Former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle was sentenced Thursday to more than 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges related to child pornography and sexual conduct involving minors.

Fogle faced two counts: traveling to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, and distribution and receipt of child pornography.

“How do you plead to the charges?” U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt asked Fogle on Thursday at the federal courthouse in Indianapolis, according to the Indianapolis Star.

“Guilty,” Fogle replied.

Pratt sentenced him to 15 years and eight months behind bars, according to the Associated Press.

The news service reported that prosecutors had recommended a 12½-year sentence.

“The level of perversion and lawlessness exhibited by Mr. Fogle is extreme,” the judge said, according to the Star….

Court documents released earlier this year detailed the allegations against Fogle. The documents claimed that he had used Web sites to solicit commercial sex and that he had traveled to engage in sexual acts with minors. Authorities also believe that Fogle received images and videos of nude children from the former executive director of his charity foundation.

That man, Russell Taylor, has agreed to plead guilty to child exploitation and child pornography charges.

Before his sentencing, Fogle delivered a statement in which he apologized for his actions, the Star reported….

MONROVIA, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Thursday vowed to crack down on those responsible for a rise in ritual killings in the West African country as it seeks to emerge from the shadow of an Ebola epidemic.

In some areas of central Africa, body parts are prized for their supernatural powers and are used in black magic ceremonies. Local media have reported at least 10 related murders in Liberia since the summer.

“We are witnessing the rise in what appears to be ritualistic killings and armed robbery in the country, thus threatening our security,” Johnson Sirleaf said in a speech on Thursday.

“I am instructing the security forces to rigorously enforce the law to the letter and bring this ugly situation under immediate control,” she added.

It is not yet clear why ritual killings are rising and Johnson Sirleaf offered no explanation. But some residents have speculated that presidential hopefuls seeking to replace Johnson Sirleaf when her final term expires 2017 are using black magic to boost their chances…. http://www.trust.org/item/20151119225408-8l0u8

September 3, 2015 Comments Off on The woman who helped break the Jared Fogle case, The number of child abuse cases in the military hits a decade high

– The woman who helped break the Jared Fogle case
– Perverse text messages led to Jared Fogle’s downfall
– The number of child abuse cases in the military hits a decade high

The woman who helped break the Jared Fogle case
Tim Evans and Mark Alesia, The Indianapolis Star September 1, 2015

INDIANAPOLIS ….the Indianapolis woman who provided information that led police to discover the child pornography that will send Jared Fogle and Russell Taylor — the former head of Fogle’s charitable foundation — to prison for years.

….“If she doesn’t make the phone call, we don’t find out about Taylor,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve DeBrota told The Indianapolis Star. “If we don’t find out about Taylor, we don’t find out about Fogle. And 14 (young victims) wouldn’t have been rescued.”

Less than two weeks after Fogle, the former Subway sandwich pitchman, agreed to plead guilty to child pornography charges, Taylor on Tuesday also took a plea deal….

An investigation into Subway’s ex-spokesman Jared Fogle’s connection to child pornography picked up steam last fall thanks to a phone call from an Indianapolis woman, the Indianapolis Star reports.

The woman, identified in court papers as “Jane Doe,” said she was getting disturbing messages from Russell Taylor, a friend of Fogle’s who was also the head of his charitable foundation, the Jared Foundation.

Jane Doe called an Indiana state police officer and told him about the messages.

“If she doesn’t make the phone call, we don’t find out about Taylor,” Assistant US Attorney Steve DeBrota told The Indianapolis Star. “If we don’t find out about Taylor, we don’t find out about Fogle. And 14 [young victims] wouldn’t have been rescued.”

In the messages, Taylor had “offered to send her images or videos of young girls,” an affidavit states. “Russell Taylor made this offer during a series of text messages that included discussions of sexual matters, including bestiality and sadistic or masochistic abuse.”….

Getz said he viewed the messages on Jane Doe’s phone in October 2014 and discovered that she and the Taylors had exchanged dozens of texts that were sexual in nature, according to the affidavit.

Jane Doe apparently grew uncomfortable with the messages when Taylor allegedly began offering to send her child pornography and asked if he and another adult woman could engage in a sexual act with one of her horses…..

Police discovered videos of nude children ages 11 to 16 who were secretly recorded in his home, according to the affidavit.

Investigators also found a thumb drive containing commercially produced child pornography, along with a document with Taylor’s employer, the Jared Foundation, listed in the file name.

The number of child abuse cases in the military hits a decade high
By Missy Ryan September 2, 2015

Confirmed cases of abuse and neglect of military children increased markedly in 2014, Defense Department data showed on Wednesday, prompting concerns among Pentagon about efforts to safeguard the nation’s over 1 million military children.

In fiscal year 2014, officials tracking family violence within the military confirmed 7,676 cases of child abuse or neglect, an increase of 10 percent from the previous year, according to annual statistics on child abuse and domestic violence. Confirmed cases of neglect – which excludes physical and sexual abuse – rose by 14 percent, military officials said.

The data, which has not been released publicly and was obtained by the Washington Post, contrasts with a years-long decline in child abuse and neglect among civilian families nationwide….

David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, said the rate of abuse among military families, at 5.6 victims per 1,000 children, remains well below that for the general population, which is around 9 per 1,000 nationally….

The Pentagon is also struggling to end a chronic problem with sexual assault among service members. In May, the Defense Dept. released a report showing that instances of sexual assault had fallen but that retaliation against those who report such attacks remains a major problem. For the first time, the military is also expanding the scope of its effort to contain sexual assault to include male-on-male attacks.

August 20, 2015 Comments Off on Former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle to plead guilty in child abuse case Fogle agrees to plead guilty to allegations he paid for sex acts with minors and received child abuse images, and to pay $1.4m in restitution to 14 victims

Former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle to plead guilty in child abuse case
Fogle agrees to plead guilty to allegations he paid for sex acts with minors and received child abuse images, and to pay $1.4m in restitution to 14 victims

Mahita Gajanan and agencies
Wednesday 19 August 2015

Longtime Subway sandwich pitchman Jared Fogle has agreed to plead guilty to allegations that he paid for sex acts with minors and received child abuse images that he knew had been secretly produced by the former director of his charitable foundation, federal prosecutors said in court documents released on Wednesday.

Fogle will plead guilty to one count each of travelling to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and the distribution and receipt of child abuse images after appearing in court in Indianapolis on Wednesday morning.

Prosecutors said that under the plea deal, each side will seek a sentence from 5 to 12.5 years in prison. Further hearing dates have not yet been decided.

Court documents said Fogle agrees to pay $1.4m in restitution to 14 minor victims, who will each receive $100,000. Fogle will also be required to register as a sex offender and undergo treatment for sexual disorders….

Federal prosecutors allege in the documents that the married father of two travelled to pay for sex acts, including with minors, from 2007 until as recently as June and that he repeatedly planned business trips to coincide with his sexual pursuits.

On 3 November 2012, Fogle allegedly paid a 17-year-old girl who he had found online to engage in sex acts while he was staying at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, according to the papers. Several months later, he again paid her for sex acts while staying at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, according to the document, which says the girl told Fogle her age when they first met and that he knew she was a minor.

After the first meeting, the document said, Fogle texted the girl and offered to pay her a fee if she could find him another underage girl to pay for sex acts.

During these discussions, Fogle “stated that he would accept a 16-year-old girl, while stating that the younger the girl, the better”, the document said.

Between 2011 and 2013, Fogle also repeatedly sent text messages to other escorts, “soliciting them to provide him with access to minors as young as 14 to 15 years”, the document said, adding that he would only make such requests after engaging in sex acts with the escorts to “insure that they were not undercover police officers”.

Sources say Fogle will accept a plea deal Wednesday. The U.S. Attorney’s Office will hold a press conference tomorrow afternoon to discuss the deal and charges against Fogle.

Fogle’s attorney, Ron Elberger, had no comment in regards to the plea deal. He said any information regarding the charges would come from the attorney’s office. Elberger did say Fogle’s suspension with Subway continues.

Subway issued the following statement to FOX59 Tuesday:

“We have already ended our relationship with Jared and have no further comment.”….

Earlier this year, Russell Taylor, the former director of the Jared Foundation started by Fogle, was arrested in a child pornography case. He was accused of possessing and producing child pornography. Investigators said a search of Taylor’s home turned up more than 500 videos with images of child pornography….

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia pledges to make reparations and change practices after independent report accuses bishops of covering up crimes for decades

Severin Carrell Scotland editor Tuesday 18 August 2015

The Scottish Catholic church has offered a “profound apology” to victims of child abuse and the church’s failure to investigate and punish the culprits, after a damning independent report into its conduct.

Archbishop Philip Tartaglia, the official head of the Scottish church, told a congregation in Glasgow on Tuesday that their bishops were “shamed and pained” by the abuse suffered by children and adults over recent decades. “We say sorry. We ask forgiveness.”

After pledging to act on an independent inquiry commissioned by the church, which accused its bishops of covering up the crimes for decades, Tartaglia said: “Child abuse is a horrific crime. That this abuse should have been carried out within the church, and by priests and religious [orders], takes that abuse to another level….

The McLellan inquiry was set up by Scotland’s bishops in November 2013 after a string of highly damaging historical abuse scandals came to light, including repeated child abuse by paedophile priests, which was often covered up or ignored, systematic abuse by staff at Fort Augustus Catholic boarding school, and the admissions of sexual misconduct against adult priests by Cardinal Keith O’Brien, then the UK’s most senior Catholic.

The church’s own investigations in 2013 disclosed that there were also 46 live allegations of abuse against priests made between 2006 and 2012, leading to seven prosecutions.

Edward Heath child abuse claims: Prison officer makes further allegation against former Prime Minister
18 August 2015 By Mikey Smith
Wiltshire Police has received a further allegation relating to Sir Edward, but he’s no longer under investigation in North Yorkshire
A prison officer has made a further allegation against Sir Edward Heath.

The alleged offence is reportedly being dealt with by Wiltshire Police, and is not thought to have taken place in North Yorkshire, according to Sky News.